it's been awhile

There has been so much going on lately and a lot of laying around at the same time.  I did something to my back and I couldn't even sit at my computer desk!  I know -- the tragedy!  I am not quite sure what happened, but I imagine rather than it being just one thing it was a combination of raking, leaning over Phin, moving furniture all over kingdom come, and never forget the infernal laundry!  So my back was hurting and then add in a combined about 7 hours of sitting in the fiendish church pews (I am sorry, but those benches can be wretched after prolonged exposure) over the course of a few days because of various meetings and I was completely laid out last Sunday afternoon.  The following week consisted of me taking the kids to seminary, laying on my bed, taking kids to school, laying on my bed, moving all of the dishes to the edge of the counter then kneeling to put them in the dishwasher, laying on my bed, going to the chiropractor, laying on my bed, vacuuming, laying on my bed, teaching my class, laying on my bed, being in charge of RS meeting, laying on my bed -- I'm sure you get the idea.  Then on Friday, after I had gotten a back brace and was feeling a teensy bit better, I caught the virulent stomach bug that has been mowing down the entire city (Lucy, Phin, Ibby, and I got the vomiting part and the other three members of my family just feel yucky and wiped out) so spent a couple of more days in my bed.  I do have a pretty comfortable bed so that is good. 


Our friend just left with the greeting, "Have fun celebrating the genocide of this country's indigenous people."  Okay.  And don't forget the raising and subsequent slaughter of millions of top heavy turkeys.  Let's all go enjoy that, shall we?

lions, and glenda, and flamenco dancers -- oh my!

Another crazy weekend!  The kids didn't have school on Friday so the insanity started a little earlier than usual with free scary face pancakes at IHOP, a trip to the library for a costume parade, taking Ella to the school for Madrigal practice while I conferenced with some teachers, shopping for some last minute Halloween items, taking Charles to a carb fest at Avanti's then upon finding we were at the wrong location scurrying across town to the other restaurant, getting everyone ready for the trunk or treat at the church, and dance practice. Saturday started bright and early with the girls and I going to Chicago and the boys going to Peoria for cross country sectionals and ended with Matthew at stake conference, Ella at a teen party, me and the little girls at a neighborhood party, and Charles holding down the fort with sleeping Phin and taking notes on the "Rally to Restore Sanity/and or Fear" for us.

::shopping on Michigan Avenue

::eating at the Melting Pot -- mmmmm

::going to the Lion King -- I'm not a huge fan of the movie (or the story, or even the music necessarily), but the costumes, dancing, and singing were fabulous!

::lovin' the city!

::always playing

::Charlie running -- look at that great form!

::Happy Halloween!

::he may not be able to see us, but we can see that he's pretty cute!

gallivanting

I inevitably forget my camera when we go out, but thanks to our cool new phones, (we got the most amazing deal on a new phone plan which was very exciting because some kids wanted phones, some kids wanted texting -- can you believe we made it so long without it?  And it is already causing trouble...) I was able to take some pictures while we were out last weekend.  They're not the best, but they will do.

We went down to Springfield to see Charles run in his third cross country meet.  He is doing really well and got 13th out of over 90 kids.  He was very excited because they gave the first 20 a medal.  I have no pictures of him, not that he would've let me, so I suppose since I didn't even think of it he obviously has conditioned me.  He rode home on the bus so we took the three youngest over to New Salem.  It is so beautiful there and they happened to be having a bluegrass festival.  Matthew sat and listened to some great music while the kids and I visited some of the little dwellings.  And by little I mean minuscule-y tiny.  Some of those families had 9 or 10 kids with only one room!  We think we have it so bad sometimes and we in all actuality absolutely do not.  We came home and thought our house was so spacious and had a lot more rooms than we actually need.  A separate kitchen and indoor toilet are merely luxuries.  We also decided that what we do need is a family bluegrass band, doesn't everyone?  There were people playing the banjo, the ukulele, the dulcimer, the bucket (?), apparently anything goes -- now I know what we're getting for Christmas...

After New Salem we missed an important turn, but decided that we were perfectly capable of finding the freeway by taking country roads in the correct general direction.  Normally our rule is to never turn around or backtrack, but  we ran into this:

And a whole lot of this:

And had basically decided that the new rule was that yellow lines on the road were mandatory when we ran into this:

Can you see that rusty car in the silo?  It was amazing and must have happened during a tornado years ago!  And to think that we might have gone through our whole life without seeing it just because it is on an extremely remote Illinois back road -- that was a close call!

rhythms

The tempo of my days has changed and I seem to have more time than I did when we didn't have much to do.  Getting up at 5:30 has its perks indeed ~~ I've been so productive before it's even 9 a.m.!  Ella was questioning this yesterday when we wondered why no one got any Personal Progress or Duty to God goals done this summer:  there wasn't anything pressing and thus nothing was actually accomplished.  Now when everyone has so much to do with schoolwork and what have you, the rest of our lives are clicking into place as well.  I was anxious about school starting again, but having a more concrete schedule is definitely an improvement from what my natural tendencies seem to be.


I know I've mentioned this before, but I  really like using cloth diapers which is something I didn't expect.  I was one day horrified by the idea of how big a mountain of disposable diapers just my family had created and so I switched when my fourth was a baby.  There were also the advantages of not using bleached paper, not buying a huge package of diapers every two weeks, not running out in a pinch, and many more that aren't coming to mind right at the moment, but there were also some unforeseen bonuses: such as right away I became aware of her natural rhythms in a way that had been impossible before and I felt more in tune and closer to her.  I have discussed this phenomenon with other cloth diapering moms and they have felt it, too.  

The sun is moving south.  I wouldn't have even been aware of it if I weren't hanging out my clothes to dry, but the spot where I liked to hang my whites to get really sparkly has diminished to a small piece of line for a tiny window of time because of where my biggest trees are and I have to move my diaper drying rack onto the driveway to get any nifty sun bleaching action at all.  I know this happens every year, but I couldn't tell you exactly what happens with the sun and the moon.  I must not have been paying attention.  Does everyone know all of these things already and I'm just out of touch?  I have always been intrigued by the amount of knowledge that our ancestors had about the movement of the sun, weather predictors, plant knowledge, etc.  Where did they get all of their information without so much as an encyclopedia or google in sight?  It was from experience and necessity and we have lost so much by moving indoors, our reliance on technology, and only buying whatever "they" are selling to us.  The light moved slowly at first, but now as the equinox approaches there are huge differences every afternoon.  I am in awe ~~ of the sun, the earth, and of how much that I don't know or understand.

Like why are bubbles so totally awesome and circular?  We're going to go blow some in the kitchen before I mop and Phin will dance around in delight popping as many as he can.  What amazes you?

good morning, good morning!

Well, the good news is that I have a really good blender -- yippee!  The bad news is that I just blended the rubber stopper thing from the blender lid into our peanut butter, yogurt, spinach breakfast smoothie this morning.  I didn't even notice!  First, I thought it seemed to be having a harder time than usual to blend up the ice and even recalled for a moment the amusing story my friend Julie told me about blending up her little plastic stopper -- hilarious!  Then I idly wondered where my stopper was and bent down into the cupboard and did the thorough yet efficient hand sweep in the dark thing.  Next, I lovingly poured the jewel green nutritious deliciousness into everyone's glasses and demanded that they drink it all up or else!  I drank a little and noted absently that the flax seeds I had added seemed especially tenacious.  Wait a minute, that's not a flax seed, that is plastic.  Oh ~~ the lightbulb illuminates above my head ~~ that's where the stopper went.  I hurriedly yanked everyone's glasses out of their hands, scooped out the black plastic chunks, mournfully poured the rest of the "breakfast that actually wasn't cold cereal" down the drain, and got out the bowls with resignation.


In other morning news, Charles woke up at 5:38 which happens to be exactly two minutes before we leave for seminary -- and we were still on time!!!  I was looking all over for him in the basement, then was going to check if he was still in bed when I ran into him groggily making his way down the stairs.  After a promise that we could run back home before school, he put on his shoes and walked out the door.  Amazing.


Phin has a little cold, didn't sleep at all well, and is wiping snot on the couch at the moment.  Oh, now he has fallen asleep and looks super sweet.


How is your day going so far?

first day of fall depression

School started today and it makes me so sad.  Did the summer go faster than usual for everyone?  I can hardly stand it and I certainly wasn't taking any pictures of the big day.  It isn't really celebratory for me at all.  My friend, Lisa, was writing on facebook about all of her homeschool preparations and I suddenly started to rethink that whole topic, but then did what I usually do which is go with the flow.  This morning, however, the girls were annoying me quite a bit and the thought quickly crossed my mind that it might actually be nice to have them gone until I realized that they were only bugging me because they weren't getting ready for school and that contention is virtually nonexistent during summer vacation.  Perhaps you should brush your hair?  Did you brush your hair??  Have you brushed your hair yet???  Oh and the homework battles!  Just shoot me now.  It also means that the winter will be here soon.  My stomach hurts.

We did have a great summer.  There was a lot of hanging out and visiting; a few projects accomplished; no big exhausting voyages; and not even one single box of macaroni or package of ramen consumed = success!

Now I just need to think of some things to keep me busy.  Heaven knows there is plenty of neglected corners around here to keep me occupied through the dark days ahead.  I know --  I'll do something really fun like reorganize our files!

Oh, and did you brush your hair?

halloween, warm november, jeans that fit

I am so thankful for my beautiful children. Sometimes I cannot get over how extraordinary they all are. I have had my suspicions that perhaps Heavenly Father may have known that I couldn't handle any real troublemakers which in a way makes me feel ... I don't know. I just know that I am grateful for them every day and every night, high and low, and there and back.

Here are some pictures of them from Halloween that I never posted.

::Toto

:: Queen Elizabeth and Dorothy

::Queen E and D again

::Suprella!

None of Charles since he wouldn't dress up this year. Sad. Maybe he will be mature enough next year to realize that dressing up is fun, fun, fun!

I am thankful for two more things. First, the amazing weather we had this weekend!!!! Oh my goodness, September and October were much too chilly so it was beyond wonderful to have this little reprieve. It was 68˚, my favorite temperature. Aaaah. Today it is a little cooler, but still lovely as can be for a November afternoon.

The next thing is that I am incredibly grateful that I found some jeans that fit. What a trial! I certainly don't want to wear Mom jeans, bien sur! But I also don't like really low rise since I am a mom and have a mom tummy to prove it and I hate the whole hiking up my pants or showing off my rolls dilemma. Well, last week while I was walking at the mall since it was SO cold, I saw that there was a super one day sale at the Limited and I walked in and found them ~~ the perfect jeans for me. Regularly $69.50, got them for $14. What a coup!

Full-fledged autumn

There is a curious lightness about fall that I always forget about. It is kind of like when you rearrange the furniture in a room and it all looks fresh and unfamiliar. There were some very gusty days last week and it seemed like in one afternoon our trees turned yellow and dropped their millions of leaves. We do, as always, have one stubborn tree that likes to stay green until it snows. Every year we get to go out a try to rake the sodden (sodding!) mess so our grass won't die. My theory on why this particular tree is so late is that it is directly behind our dryer vent and since I do so much laundry I have created my own little micro-climate out there. Who knows. Back to light. I must say that by March I am quite tired of the bare sticks that are trees, but in November they are strangely lovely. Everything looks decluttered and simplified, the earth refashions itself in monochromatic grays and tans with a little of that dark autumn green thrown in, and the light in my house changes. My living room is filled with early afternoon sun that is blocked during the summer and there is a sunny spot on my landing that makes me want to curl up and take a nap -- oh where is my chaise lounge? So even though I hate to see the long, warm days come to an end, it is always nice to have a change, eat a warm dinner in a bright room surrounded by comforting darkness, and stock up on hot chocolate.

Occupied

We have been incredibly busy for the last two weeks. We finally got the cd that we have been waiting for since June so there has been a lot of the packing, sealing, addressing, etc. going on. Last week we took about 7,000 domestic packages to the post office and my challenge this week is to get the huge amount of international orders out. Matthew has been overseeing all of that plus his tenure documentation was due last Friday. The kids didn't have school that day so I sent Lulu downstairs to get something (that's what I do when they're home -- secure their services), she came up and asked if there was something wrong with daddy. "I don't know," I replied, "what is he doing?" "He is walking around the basement saying 'Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh." 'Hmmm,' thought I, 'Perhaps we should vacate the premises.' So we left him to his stress and visited the annual box maze. This thing is amazing. A local church builds a huge maze out of boxes complete with slides, dead ends, etc. It is completely dark in there, but if you get really stuck someone will come along with a light to help you find your way. They relate it to the gospel of Christ and it is nice and fun. Then we got ready for Halloween and went to a friendly friend's house for dinner which was totally nice of them. It was all around a completely insane day.

Today is marvelously gorgeous outside -- the skies are the amazing bright blue of autumn which coordinates so nicely with the gold and vermilion leaves. And it is my absolute favorite temperature -- 68˚, what's yours?